Need Accountability

May 7, 1985

I AGREE that a proposed superagency -- a regional authority -- for transportation in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties has great merit. But there's a very good reason why the plan won't fly: experiences with these agencies that are not reponsible to anyone.

Just look at the recent example of the Orange County Housing Finance Authority, which refused to do anything about its director after it learned that he had a business on the side that helped developers obtain authority bonds. And look at the Orlando Utilities Commission, which thumbed its nose at its customers and the voters in a series of events tied to the building of its new power plant.

The answer is to hold such appointed members accountable. Just provide for recall by the voters of any member of the agency who disregards the will of the public.

E.C. Hightower

ORLANDO

A NEW GERMANY

MY NAME IS Gero Hortian and I am 17 years old. I came from West Germany as an exchange student to spend one year at Edgewater High School in Orlando.

I never got involved with what it means to be German before I came to America. When people heard that I was from Germany, the only thing they knew and had to say to me was, ''Heil Hitler.''

I was surprised and I asked myself, ''Why do they have to give this to me?'' I get a lot of these simple-minded responses and questions, and all I can do is to explain what West Germany is like today.

German history is 1,900 years old and Hitler was in power for 12 of these years. I see this problem in a lot of American people: They know very little about West Germany 40 years after the darkest chapter of German history. We have in West Germany today a democratic free system and our lifestyle is very similar to the Americans'.

I like the idea of President Reagan's going to West Germany not just for political reasons but to honor the normal German soldiers who fought for their country. I think this was a good idea. And it still would have been a nice gesture if the media had not made so much of the fact that 49 SS soldiers also were buried at Bitburg. All this did was to get the president in a conflict with the American people (Jewish and non-Jewish). I understand their outrage that Reagan's going to Bitburg also honored SS soldiers. And so the good purpose of visiting the war cemetery failed and perhaps caused the opposite.

''The Germans have learned the lessons of history.'' These were the words of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and after 40 years it is time for a new chapter. I don't feel any guilt and I don't want to live with guilt. I'm a new generation and I'm proud of being German and of my country as it is today.

Racism and religion are major factors that have caused the death of millions and millions of people -- not only in German history but throughout the history of the world. Why can't human beings be more tolerant, live in peace and love each other?

Gero Hortian

ORLANDO

NEEDS A WATCHDOG

FOR ONCE I agree with Charley Reese in his column titled ''Common good must temper pursuit of profits and productivity.'' Free enterprise cannot solve nearly all our social problems. Indeed, unfettered free enterprise results in such things as air and water pollution, poisonous waste dumps, the mining of topsoil, unsafe workplaces and the exploitation of Third World countries.

Free enterprise needs a watchdog. In this day of international corporations, what is big enough to serve as a watchdog except government?

But government must be freely and fairly elected; if not government itself will betray the people. In the end, both a good economic system and a good government depend on the integrity and concern of the people.

Julia Florence Sherbourne

ORLANDO

CONFINE THE DISEASE

AN ARTICLE ON the transmission of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) by blood donors concerns me. The South Florida Blood Service refused to release the names of the people who donated the blood that led to a death. This is appalling.

As a registered nurse who is in constant danger of being exposed to AIDS through blood and close physical contact with patients who could be carriers, I am tired of the skittishness with which this epidemic is being handled.

Almost 90 percent of reported cases of AIDS continue to be homosexuals. Yet no one will do anything about employment of homosexuals in food service or health care. If a disease broke out affecting 90 percent of men, women, blacks, Hispanics or any other definable group, authorities would be quick to label it a disease rooted in that group of people and steps would be taken to see that the disease was confined. Why isn't the same done in this case?

When homosexual practices endanger my life and the lives of the members of my family who might need blood, dental work or who just want to eat without worrying about who fixed the food, then its time to put a limit on where these people can work and especially where they can sell their potentially contaminated blood.